Cheap Thrills

A weekly freebie called Artbuzz offers 30 minutes of noontime selected music, dance, storytelling, gallery talks and videos to enhance the enjoyment of exhibitions at the UA Museum of Art.

Today's Artbuzz features Lithography in 19th Century Mexico: The Contribution of Printed Images to National Culture. It is a celebration of the Museum's homecoming exhibition, De Soto and Mexico: The Second Part, now on view through May 5.

De Soto and Mexico showcases a handful of stunning 20th-century color lithographs by Tucson native and master printer, Ernest F. de Soto, featuring his work with renowned Mexican artists.

What kinds of images were made 200 years earlier in Mexico? Stacie Widdifield, UA Associate Professor of art history, travels back 200 years to explore Mexico in the 19th century and examines political cartoons for the non-reading public, lithographs of social types and city scenes and chapbooks for children.

The free Artbuzzes at the University of Arizona Museum of Art--southeast corner of Park Avenue and Speedway Boulevard--are 12:15-12:45 p.m. Thursdays in April. For more information, call 621-7567 or visit www.artmuseum.arizona.edu.

Cut a rug. Get out of the house and onto the dance floor.

Tucson Friends of Traditional Music presents Contra and Square Dance with local callers and the driving energy of live string band music. Contra dancing is energetic social dancing in a non-drinking, non-smoking atmosphere. Bring a friend or come alone. Everyone gets to dance.

The dance takes place from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday night at First United Methodist Church, 915 E. Fourth St., between Park and Tyndall, just west of the university. Admission is $7 general, $6 TFTM Members, first-time dancers receive a free ticket to the next dance. For more information, call 293-3783.